I’ve made no secret that I have a long, long term plan for the SuperFogeys. Pieces of a puzzle that I want to lay down and that will add up into something (I hope) special one day. This is one of those pieces.

I won’t say I always knew it would be Jerry to get shot, but I knew it was going to be somebody.

Fan reaction on this one was divided. Some people got really, truly concerned. They saw it as a dip into a darkness they didn’t want in SF. Others saw it as a bold choice and were excited by the possibilities.

Either way you look at it, this is a break from the norm. Personally, this is the sort of thing that gets me excited about a story. I like being told that a story is about “this” or that “this” is the tone and then just having my mind blown when the left turn comes in. SF will NEVER become a drama (or melodrama) strip, but that’s not to say there can’t be occasional dips into that territory. I think that makes the humor all the more poignant and, well, humorous.

All that aside, I should have done a better job wth Dictator Tot in panel one. For such an important strip, I wish I could have drawn a little more “on model.”